Interview:BBC Radio 6 Music
;I am in the live room with iamamiwhoami. Welcome! How are you? :Thank you. ;Thank you very much for coming. You played in London last night, Jonna. As I was saying, rapturous reception from everybody I could see that was there in the audience, tweeting and freaking out about it. How was the show from your perspective? :It was quite overwhelming. We haven't had a sitting audience before, and that was a big thing; and also, you know, meeting them physically is quite a big thing, still I haven't done that in many shows yet, so… I really enjoyed this. ;It was your first London show and it was in the Southbank as part of a festival there, so I guess it's quite an unusual one in some ways, it's not like turning up and playing in a club, or, you know, a regular gig venue, a pub or something like that. So, is it nice being in London? I mean, you know, have you kind of got British musical influences? :It's lovely to be here, and to be able to, you know, take this live is such a big thing for us, so… I love being in London, yes. ;So your debut album has been with us a little while, but there was mystery around the band at the beginning. Was that deliberate, that it was kept quite kind of anonymous to an extent, you know, people didn't know, there was lot of talk about, speculation about who the group actually were? Why did you decide to do it that way? :Well, I had a previous career and I did all the things before this and I didn't know what this was going to turn out to be, so I needed to focus on what we were doing and let everything has its course, and obviously there was talk about us that wasn't really relevant as far as work goes, it was more about, you know, about identity and such, so I decided to not listen to that and to focus on music. ;To make the change, and actually made a sonic change, rather than people going "Oh, so you make folk music" and now you're doing something completely different. When they found out that it was you, how did people react? :I don't know… uhm, I don't know, actually. I was very focused on working, so… I can't really say. I know that they had other expectations, some people, and obviously that has nothing to do with us, so yeah… ;I guess the kind of millions and millions of hits on YouTube and awards in your home country are probably a clue that it went down quite well. :I'm glad that people are following us, the work we do. ;Okay, so you're going to do two tracks for us today. What are we going to hear first, Jonna? :We will be doing "play" for you. ;Okay, over to you! Performance: play ;iamamiwhoami live on BBC 6 Music and sounding absolutely fantastic! Now, Jonna, you've– I think one of you guys, or maybe you have described the album kin as "nine months of hard labour". I read that quote, is that true? :Yes... whoa, excuse me. :It started, the work of kin, the process of making it started in August, 2011 and we finished it just before release, as we do everything in real time, so… ;What was so difficult about it, what was the "hard labour"? :It was– I mean, there are many obstacles when you have, like, big visions, I guess, and making a film and an album together in synchronization is quite a lot of work. ;Yeah, because it's an audiovisual album. :Yes. ;So, which came first then, and how did that work? Did you guys work on each of the films, or did, you know, other people work with you? How did that actually take place? :Hmm, it's– the music is the core of iamamiwhoami and then the lyrics are sort of a storyline that we base the movies upon, so I and Claes Björklund work together on the music, and then I work with our director, Robin, and then with our cinematographer and set designer, so we're five people… and then we have our brilliant musicians to play live, and such. ;There's five of you here today, and these guys, the musicians, you, worked on the album with you - or are they for the live shows? :It is only Claes and I, actually, but… who knows what will happen in the future. ;Okay. I mean, it sounds like, I can imagine that is a complicated thing to pull together. Did you have it all, kind of, figured out, what were you, exactly what you were gonna do? Before you began making the album? Or did you just kinda think "We want to do an audiovisual album, that's what this is, let's work it out as we go"? :All of our songs have visualizations, you know, even before kin there's been lots of work for many years, and so it's an extension of that but in a more solid shape, so this is iamamiwhoami in a shape that can be embraced and that fits into the sort of life where you… where you maybe might need some compartmentalization to so speak. Break ;So, Jonna, you were talking about the configuration of the band, and the band you're here with us today, who's in the mix here? Would you like to give him a mention for us? :Yes, we have Johan Lundgren who plays keyboard synths, he's been with us for a very long time, and Thomas Hedlund who plays drums, he's in a different room, locked in, behind glass doors, that's very unusual for us, and we have Beatrice Johansson who sings backing vocals. ;Okay, great! And you were saying that, maybe hinting, that you guys might work a little bit together on, you know, next releases… They didn't play on the album that you've got out at the moment. How far have you thought? Have you planned your next record yet? :No… Everything is created in real time, so every song we have released, and kin as well, we worked up 'til the release that basically with everything, so who knows what will happen, you know, in the future… and I wouldn't say I even know if there're gonna be no more releases, I can't promise anything. ;Oh, really? So we've just got to enjoy you while we've got you? :Yes, well, everything has to come from, you know, total excitement and pleasure of creation, so… ;And you've got a new single coming out though, haven't you? In a couple of weeks, I think, over here… the 5th of November, for "goods"… and what are you gonna do after that? Are there gonna be more live shows, or anything in that vein? :Yes, I think there will be more live shows. ;So first London day yesterday, will you be coming in the UK for those or are they in Europe elsewhere? :I would hope so, I really enjoyed it yesterday, so that should probably happen. ;Ok, well, we hope to see you back here very soon, but for now would you treat us to some more music, please? :Yes! We'll play "goods" for you now. ;Thank you. Performance: goods ;iamamiwhoami sounding absolutely splendid on BBC 6 Music! Thank you so much for coming to see us! :Thank you so much for having us. ;Oh, anytime! Come back soon, we hope to see you again in the UK. The new single "goods" is out next month, of course kin is out already. Stay with us on 6 Music, that was great! Category:Interview articles